LAST SHOTS

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 11, 8 October 1923, Page 8

LAST SHOTS

? END OF HEALTH WEEK CAMPAIGN WHAT IS BEING DONE IN THE SCHOOLS l ’ PLEA FOR PARENTAL CONTROL i Ths big effort having as its objective the improved health cf the community culminated at the Town Hall on Saturday night, when, despito steadilypouring rain, a large audience assembled to see and hear the last shot fired in the Health Week campaign. In reviewing the week’s operations, Mr. H. D. Bennett (co-ordinating officer for the committee) stated that over 1500 children from the colleges and schools, and over 14,000 adults had visited tho stalls, demonstrations, lectures, and entertainments in the Town Hall during the week, wliile it was estimated that 5000 more had listened to talks on health matters from the numerous visiting lecturers. In addition to this, 1500 loads (2500 cubic yards) of rubbish had been removed from backyards during the six days. Mr. Bennett announced that Health Week had come to stay, and would be held in Wellington each year in early October. Health talks were given on Saturday to the employees of the Government Printing' Office at 9.30 a.m., demonstrations were continued at the Town Hall/and the week’s activities concluded with a very full programme in the evening, which showed what was being done in the colleges and schools to ensure that sinews should grow with brains. “GET BACK TO THE SIMPLE LIFE” “Get back to the simple life” was the burden of a health talk which Sister J. E. Lewis had with 150 women employees of tho Government Printing Office on Saturday morning. Sister Lewis pointed out that the nervous system governed the whole body, and the tendency nowadays was to live at such a pace that the candle was being burned at both ends, and in the middle. The secret of health was simple living. What was wanted was plenty of rest and sleep with the windows wide open. Many girls hurried home from work, only to rush off to distractions in the evening, with the result that they became so run down that they had to have recourse to drugs to' keep going. The speaker, particularly warned girls against the drug habit, which;, if .persisted' in,

would assuredly lead to their becoming old women by tho time they were 30 years of age. Sister Lewis advised her hearers to get back to the simple life; to pack up a hamper and get away to the beaches at the week-end, where healthy sun baths and ozone would do more good for them than all the +b«» world.

CAMPAIGN REVIEWED Mr. 11. D. Bennett, co-ordinating officer for the Health Week Committee, in reviewing the week’s operations at the Town Hall on Saturday evening, informed a large audience that the most pleasing feature was the greatly increased interest taken in the movement by the citizens. _ “We have welcomed particularly,” said Mr. Bennett, “the part that the children have this year taken in the campaign, for though there may be little resultant reformation in us elderly and hardened sinners, there will be much enlightenment. we trust, among the rising generation by reason of our efforts to place before them the modern knowledge concerning health, which we in our time did not have at lour disposal.” That industrial lectures, he proceeded, bad been well received and appreciated was evidenced by the requests the committee had received for their repetition, and By helpful suggestions sent in by the staffs of some of the business houses. As a result of the campaign the city would; be healthier if each person had embibed one better idea and acted upon it. On behalf of the Health Week Committee, Mr. Bennett sincerely thanked all the lecturers and every person who had assisted in making the campaign such an unqualified success. The committee were especially grateful for the readv assistance given by all divisions of the Department of Health, by the Wellington branch of the British Medical Association, and societies and associations whose work moved along the lines of social medicine. WORK IN THE SCHOOLS Mr. Longworth, director of school physical training, explained the methods carried out in the schools, and these were demonstrated by displays bj’ squads from the Clyde Quay and Terrace State Schools and the Wellington Girls’ College. The exercises gone through brought into play every muscle in the body, as well as expanding the lungs, and the girls am} boys entered into them with an abandon which proved that thev fully enjoyed them. Dr. Helen Bakewell, director of school hygiene, gave an illustrated lecture showing the wonderful improvement which had been effected in badly developed children by corrective exercises. Dr. Paterson stated that the parents of New Zealand were not availing themselves of the splendid natural advantages which obtained for developing their children upon right lines. More care should be taken to see that the children were adquately fed upon a natural diet, and obtained as much sunshine and sea breezes as possible. It was the heritage of every child to have a congenial playground, and those in authority should see to it that such were provided, PARENTAL CONTROL AS IT AFFECTS THE HEALTH OF CHILDREN “Th© prime responsibility for the welfare and happiness of the child rests on its parents,” declared the Rev. T. Fieldon Taylor, in a lecture on “Parental Control and Moral Training” at the Health Week rally at the Town Hall on Saturday evening. “Tho state and volunteer agencies so far as child welfare arc concerned,” he continued, “are only a proof of the failure of some parents to rise to their responsibility. With our standard of general education and in a country of general prosperity child welfare work should le an ever increasing phenomenoni. There is ho reason why parents should not lie able to look after the welfare of their own children ; there is no real excuse for carelessness or neglect. There aro many things which parents can do to oontrib'uto to the liealth and therefore happiness of tho child. The first duty of parents is to lead the child into the formation of regular

habits, and, of course, before they can do that they must have formed regular habits themselves. Behind that the regular life is conducive to health. There is a tendency these days to stay in bed in the morning whenever opportunity offers, with the result that many young children find it very difficult to get up when they are called; the mere fact that they have to be called at all proves that they are not forming regular habits. The alarm clock is evidence of the fact that many people keep wrong hours.” If the young did not wake feeling refreshed, continued Mr. Taylor, there was something radically wrong with tn© way they lived. As a matter of fact there was every temptation to remain out till late hours and so go to bed later than the proper time. We live in an age in which entertainments were numerous and comparatively cheap, and the crowds on the public streets between 10 and 11 every night (crowds composed of adults and children) were sufficient proof that many people go to bed very late. Amusement should provide real refreshment, and it was doubtful whether some so called amusements were refreshing at all. Children should be encouraged to find their ausement out-of-doors. The idea was that tho parents should share the pleasures of tneir children. The sitting for two hours in a crowded theatre could not be conducive to health. Yet again a great deal of our health and happiness depended on food, and there was great need of guidance and restraint, tn the us© of food. Some children were allowed to eat far too much meat. He believed that a child was better without tea, no child should be allowed over-indul-gence in pastry and tbo sally increasing lolly, which coutd be purchased up to 11 p.m., even including Sunday, was not an aid to trie health of the child. The weakness of public opinion was nowhere more clearly demonstrated than in the consumption of Jollies by children of all ages and all classes. The nimble penny could buy something from the lolly shop wiien it could buy nothing anywhere else. There was no doubt that the indiscriminate eating of all sorts of lollies was the cause of much dental trouble. The earless parent chose to please the child at the moment, and left the future to look after itself. There is one more habit which is also modern and which seems to be proving steadily more universal,” proceeded the lecturer; “it is that of morning and afternoon tea. The prevalence of the habit can be judged from the numbers of shops which make a living out of it. Some of us have seen the practice grow, and one wonders to what extent it will have further developed in the next 25 years. The practice is ruinous to appetitie; a healthy appetite is usually 7 a sign of a healthy body. . These snacks between meals are injurious to the regular meals, no, wise parent allows a child food between meals. Ad that I have said is obviously true, but it is wonderful how difficult it is to practise truth All will agree that health is an invaluable asset, but all are by no means prepared to follow the road along which perfect health can be maintained. Parents need firm and fixed principles, on the matter to which 1 have referred, and, having these principles they need the will to carry them out. There are too many parents whom children can coax into attaining their wants; to yield in a matter of principle to a child is not love but want of will, and in the long run the child sums such a person up and withholds respect accordingly. Self-control is a great factor in happiness, and the child reared on the principles I have referred to will inevitably possess more self-control, and therefore be happier. Every true parent desires the ultimate welfare and happiness of the child, and will not allow a passing and fleeting pleasure to prejudice such ultimate welfare and happiness.”

WHAT TO EAT > ADVICE UPON FOOD VALUES Some sound advice upon the most healthy 7 diet to ensure health was given by Dr. E. Gordon Anderson on Saturday morning to shine 350 male members . of the staff of tho Government Printing Works. In this critical age, said Dr. Anderson, when every branch .of science was endeavouring to find tho cause of the various phenomena met with, the medical profession had directed its investigations more than ever into the causative agents at work in producing disease and ascertaining whether these causes could be corrected or removed. It had become a well-established fact that the greatest number of infective diseases were produced by microbic infection either air-borne or carried to the body in the water we drink'or the food we ea,t. Dustless air contained no microbes, and since dust was one of our greatest enemies he advised his hearers to keep as much as possible in a dustless atmosphere. That drinking water or milk can become infected by infective material getting into the fluids was demonstrated by the typhoid epidemic experienced not so long ago at Auckland. Probably house flies were the most important factors in causing infection of food, and consequently there was necessity to as far as possible destroy their breeding grounds, which were in tho crevices of windows, in decaying refuse,, and to a very 7 large extent in manure dumps. Touching upon foods. Dr. Anderson said that Professor Funk, in 1911, while investigating a disease called which was very common in the East, discovered that the disease was caused by 7 the natives making polished rice their sole article of diet, but that it was not found amongst natives who fed on rice covered with its husk. After much research, the professor found that these husks contained the minutest quantity of a substance which he termed vitamine, which was very 7 necessary to human economy. Other investigators had demonstrated that there were three kinds of vitamines. One was found in greens, another in vegetable and animal fats, and the third in fruits. A deficiency 7 in one or any 7 of these vitamines was liable to set up various deficiency 7 diseases in the human body. Moreover, it was found that these vitamines were killed at a heat very far slrkrt of boiling point. Applying this knowledge to our daily food, we found it was better to eat birown bread or wholemeal bread containing the wheat germ, and. thus the vitamine. We should make green vegetables an essential part of our diet, and these vegetables should not be subjected to excessive cooking, and thus have their vitamine content destroved. In vegetable soups and vegetable stews the meat portion‘should be well nigh cooked before the vegetables were added. The vegetables should be added from 20 to 30 minutes be Ore the dish was served. Most people ate too much meat, and, in fact, took too much food, and this food excess exhausted the pancreas, which had the greatest part of the. digesting to do. This constituted in great part the cause of diabetes, which was being so much discussed nowadays, and the much-dis-cussed insulin treatment of diabetes aimed at supplying the material which was deficient through the pancreas being exhausted, but could not cure those with irretrievably 7 damaged pancreas. Meat should be taken in moderate quantities, and was better underdone, so that one was hot eating charred cinder. Butter, fresh milk, and cream should enter into our dietry to give tho fat soluble vitamine required. It was one thing to know what to eat.

and yet another thing to know how and when to eat. Food should be thoroughly masticated, and this took time and required good teeth, which should be kept clean, and should be periodically overhauled by a reliable dentist.